Santa Monica, Culver City Cancel Fireworks

The Fourth of July is starting to look like a dud on the Westside, with Santa Monica canceling its popular pre-dawn fireworks extravaganza due to concerns about tight budgets and Culver City following suit in part because of the recent rioting in Los Angeles.

In Santa Monica, city officials decided last week that they could not afford the $71,000 cost of Dawn’s Early Light, a 4:45 a.m. fireworks show and concert that drew an estimated 250,000 people last year, despite bad weather.

Kate Vernez, of the city manager’s office, said the cost of full deployment of the Police Department throughout the long weekend couldn’t be justified during a time of major budget reductions.

“That’s really stretching resources,” she said, although she stressed that the celebration has been canceled for this year only.

This would have marked the sixth year of the 30-minute display, which is staged just north of the Santa Monica Pier and is followed by an hourlong concert.

Culver City also found the cost of celebrating the nation’s 216th birthday too high, with the City Council voting unanimously last week to withhold $25,000 budgeted a year ago for the event.

Culver City is facing a recession-induced $2.9-million projected deficit for the 1992-1993 fiscal year and cannot afford the expense, Councilman Steven Gourley said.

Gourley also expressed concerns about violence.

“With us being the only fireworks show on the Westside, there may be some people out there who are not interested in seeing fireworks, but interested in causing trouble,” he said.

About 15,000 people had been expected to attend this year’s show at the Culver City High School athletic field.